August 20, 2012
Congo-Kinshasa: Mechanisation Fails for Farmers
Mechanisation was expected to transform agriculture in the Democratic Republic of Congo's central province of East Kasaï. But a project to offer tractors for ploughing land… Read more »
November 15, 2011
Africa: World's Biggest Hydropower Scheme Will Leave Africans in the Dark
South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed an agreement to build a major hydroelectric power project, which is said to bring electricity to more than half of the… Read more »
August 08, 2011
Congo-Kinshasa: Fresh Start for Coffee Producers
Long years of civil war and instability set off a crippling decline in coffee production in the Democratic Republic of Congo: the country's output in 2010 was less than a tenth the… Read more »
March 28, 2011
Southern Africa: Customs Union Eyeing the Money, Not Development
A new revenue sharing formula in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) could boost development but has met with resistance from the governments of poorer states in the… Read more »
December 17, 2010
Africa: Scientists Focus On Male Mosquitoes in Bid to Control Malaria
After successfully suppressing scourges of fruit, tsetse and screwworm flies in the Americas, researchers are exploring whether the same sterilised insect technique can be used to… Read more »
August 13, 2010
Congo-Kinshasa: DRC Farmers Welcome Support
Farmers in the southwestern Democratic Republic of Congo are looking forward to increased production after 16 tractors and 200 ox-drawn carts were distributed across three regions… Read more »
August 10, 2010
Kenya: Deadly Cactus Good for Animal Feed
Joseph Ole Morijo is baffled by research findings that cactus plants can be used as animal fodder during drought. Not after he lost his entire herd of 152 goats and sheep to the… Read more »
November 28, 2009
Mauritania: Women Struggle for Equality, Says Rights Lawyer
Mauritania formally adopted the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2001, but in the eight years since, it has had limited effect on the status… Read more »
August 18, 2008
Equatorial Guinea: Human Rights Drowning in Oil
The oil interests of Angola, Brazil and Portugal could pave the way for former Spanish colony Equatorial Guinea to become the ninth member of the Community of Portuguese Language… Read more »
June 23, 2008
Chad: 'Africa's Pinochet' Still Eluding Justice
Two years after the African Union mandated Senegal to conduct the trial of Chadian dictator Hissenè Habré, who is accused of thousands of political murders during his… Read more »
April 10, 2008
Ethiopia: 'The Death Sentence Was Used As a Tool of Intimidation'
Journalism in Ethiopia has become an increasingly hazardous trade over recent years. A clampdown on the media in the wake of disputed elections in 2005 continues to resonate in the… Read more »
January 02, 2008
South Africa: Government Set to Reach Sanitation Target, But is It Enough?
The South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has narrowly missed one of its most important targets, aimed at improving sanitation for the country's poorest people -… Read more »
October 22, 2007
Congo-Kinshasa: World Bank Confronts Challenge Over Logging
The World Bank is scrambling to respond to complaints that it broke its own rules to support commercial logging at the expense of Pygmy lands and livelihoods in the war-wrecked… Read more »
August 10, 2007
Guinea Bissau: African Paradise for South American Traffickers
Guinea-Bissau has become the first African narco-state, where South American traffickers have set up their headquarters and hideouts for large-scale cocaine smuggling operations… Read more »
Sierra Leone: Women As an Antidote to Corruption?
Sierra Leone will hold general elections Saturday with a number of significant achievements in hand, not least maintaining peace for five years. Read more »
July 17, 2007
Sierra Leone: Women Confront Obstacles in Politics
When Iyesha Josiah told people last year that after the August 2007 general elections, she would stand before them as a new member of parliament for Sierra Leone, they thought she… Read more »
July 06, 2007
Sudan: UN Says Ailing Environment a Key 'Stress Factor'
A report by the U.N. Environment Programme assessing Sudan's environmental degradation, scheduled for a national launch in Khartoum on Jul. 8, has spurred debate for linking… Read more »
July 05, 2007
Ethiopia: Ogaden Crackdown Carries High Human Cost
An intensified counter-insurgency campaign against Somali rebels and their suspected civilian supporters in Ethiopia's Ogaden region is drawing growing criticism by human… Read more »
June 29, 2007
Ethiopia: Starbucks Coffee Deal Hailed As Model
A deal between Starbucks and Ethiopia that ends their trademark dispute and offers more benefits to Ethiopian coffee farmers has been hailed as a potential model for other poor… Read more »
June 18, 2007
Cape Verde: Migration Key to Country's History
The small West African island nation of Cape Verde, which was uninhabited when Portuguese navigators discovered it in 1460, now has more citizens living abroad than at home. And… Read more »
June 07, 2007
Mauritania: Exiles' Lawsuit Shines Light On Past Abuses
A group of Mauritanian exiles living in New York has come forward to challenge their country's justice system and the alleged abuses of the former ruler of the Islamic Republic… Read more »
March 16, 2007
Benin: 'You Clearly Saw the Horrors of Desertification'
Seven years of working in some of the poorest parts of Benin put Euloge Vidégla in the front lines of the battle against desertification. An agricultural economist by… Read more »
March 01, 2007
Senegal: Setting Fire to the Future
It's the season for bush fires in Senegal, and there are once again concerns that vast tracts of fertile land could be set alight, and ravaged. Read more »
February 25, 2007
West Africa: Investments Against Desertification Deliver the Goods
Experts from the Inter-State Committee to Fight Drought in the Sahel (Comité inter Etats de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel, CILSS) are calling on donors to… Read more »
February 21, 2007
Niger: Projects Aplenty to Halt the Desert
For those taking up arms against desertification in Niger, the task at hand must seem daunting. Read more »